Share

Instagram 3.0's New Maps Feature: A Privacy Wake-Up Call?

Instagram 3.0 adds a maps feature that plots your photos, as well as a redesigned profile page.

Screenshot: Christina Bonnington/Wired

Instagram certainly seems to be following Facebook's ethos of "sharing more is better." Among a handful of mostly minor updates, Instagram 3.0, out today on iOS and Android, adds a photo-mapping feature that plots all of your Instagram shots on a map, so viewers of your profile can check out photogenic spots in your 'hood and from your travels.

The feature marks a new way of exploring and remembering Instagram photos. "We don't want Instagram only to be about 'now,'" Instagram founder Kevin Systrom told Wired via email. "Instead we want Instagram to be a visual collection of your memories – something beautiful and nostalgic."

Although it's kind of cool to see your photos mapped out, for most of us here at Gadget Lab, the initial knee-jerk reaction was "Yikes! This is creepy." It was also a huge reminder of how easily we can forget that our location information is tracked and stored by apps.

A PSA for the new Maps feature in Instagram.

Screenshot: Christina Bonnington/Wired

That said, the app update comes with an easy-to-understand popup explaining the new map feature. You are able to select exactly which photos are publicly viewable on your map, and Instagram warns in a message, "Be mindful of which photos you add to your map. Their location will be visible to everyone who visits your map." If you add a photo to your map, and then have second thoughts, you're able to remove it at any point in time (just tap the edit button on your map).

"All the photos a user has geotagged are already available to the public either through the app or the API. This new feature is simply making it easier to visualize this data. No new data that isn't already public is being featured," Systrom said. "We take privacy very seriously and have gone to extra lengths to make it clear how the feature works and give control of data directly to users."

Once I clicked past that information screen, the app aggregated all the photos I had snapped at the locations I frequent most, including Wired, my house, and a handful of San Francisco bars and restaurants. All the photos were automatically checked off for geotagging, so it was up to me to uncheck the ones I didn't want on my map. Further down the list were vacation spots I'd visited, CES meeting rooms at the Las Vegas Convention Center (not sure if those geotags are sad or funny), and photos grouped more generally by city.

Screenshot: Christina Bonnington/Wired

There are three ways you can deselect photos from being shared on your map. First is the subtle "deselect all" at the top of the screen – I highly recommend clicking this to avoid oversharing your whereabouts. Or you can simply go through all your photos and deselect individual ones with a tap. Or third, as photos are grouped into geolocation tagged sections, you can choose to deselect entire sections by tapping a check mark in the upper-right above a section. But be warned: Once you've decided not to share a photo to your map, you do not have the option to add it back to your map later.

Although I wish Instagram had set its default to opting out of map tagging, I'm pleased that the company didn't go full-Facebook by opting you into sharing your photos on a map and publishing it live at the outset. In fact, even though Facebook is getting closer to realizing its acquisition of Instagram, the two companies aren't currently merging privacy policies. Systrom clarified, saying the news maps feature "has nothing to do with the pending Facebook acquisition.... Until the FTC decides to clear the deal there is no collaboration or integration between the companies."

Besides adding maps, the new Instagram also slightly updates profile pages – now you can view an individual's photos as a grid, in list view, or the map view. The photo upload screen has also been redesigned, providing you with a thumbnail of the image you're posting and a slider that lets you control whether you add a photo to your map or not. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other sharing options can be toggled with a tap below that.

"Users should feel very confident that we're going to great lengths to make sure they feel safe on Instagram and put control of data into their hands," Systrom said. And despite our initial hesitation at the app's new feature, we do feel safe.